UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS
THE CENTER FOR RISK MANAGEMENT & INSURANCE
At The UNIVERSITY
Of ST. THOMAS
BY: DANIEL D. RILEY
In 2014, the University of St. Thomas’ s Opus College of Business initiated an ambitious effort to improve communication and coordination across several related activity areas and to strengthen its ties to the insurance industry, the risk management community, and to what might be called the risk-related sectors( for example, data analytics, compliance, and the law). For reasons very specific to the time, this effort was labeled the Risk Leadership Initiative.
A motivating factor was a recognition that St. Thomas had important existing programming related to these communities, but they tended to be opportunistic rather than strategic. For example, the Actuarial Science program— begun in the late 1990s in response to an internal directive for inter-college collaboration— now serves its professional community and has earned the prestigious designation as a Center for Actuarial Excellence.
In the early 1990s, Risk Management programming at the MBA level was in response to unexpected funding support, which provided advanced training for higher-level managers in the risk management, insurance, and affiliated fields. Additionally, St. Thomas boasts one of the nation’ s most dynamic Gamma Iota Sigma chapters( the society for students of insurance, risk management, and actuarial science), which began as an enhancement to the actuarial program’ s early successes.
Most recently, the university has begun an undergraduate certificate in Risk Management & Insurance( in response to a“ certificate initiative”), and its courses already have full enrollments, populated by students whose majors span the university’ s offerings. Finally, due to internal preferences, St. Thomas is a recognized center for research excellence, especially in risk management. A lot has happened and is happening at St. Thomas!
What has been largely absent to date is 1) more strategic integration of existing programming, and 2) pursuit of a wider range of opportunity areas present in the insurance industry( research, community outreach, and more expansive international engagement, for example). Thus, the Center for Risk Management & Insurance( CRM & I) was established in 2025 to strengthen the university’ s integration of“ risk-related” programming and to create a better strategic focus for improved connectivity with the risk management and insurance communities.
The most encouraging of the Center’ s early activities has been an extensive fundraising effort as part of a direct outreach to the risk management and insurance community, with nearly $ 750,000 already raised. Additionally, the Center is currently establishing better coordination with the business community to facilitate greater participation in career fairs, scholarships, internships, and student recruitment and hiring. Within these specific areas, many opportunities have blossomed for direct involvement.
4 • NesbitAgencies. com